OOH

Dental Cab for Cutie

There’s so much going on with DTC dental startup Candid’s most recent OOH branding campaign that I don’t even know where to start. So, bullets:

• Candid, a teledentistry startup founded in 2017, just ran an über-creative campaign with Lyft. 
• Specifically, Candid partnered with OOH platform Halo by Lyft, a startup Lyft bought in early March.
• Halo by Lyft essentially puts mini, geotargeted digital billboards on top of NYC’s yellow cabs.

TL;DR: In Candid’s latest “Smile On, New York,” campaign, the creative changes based on which NYC neighborhood the cab is in—because brand messaging that works in Queens might not work on the Lower East Side. 

Highlight reel

Candid’s branding effort with Halo by Lyft gets a few things right.

It plays on cultural conversation. Candid’s executive creative director Charles Fulford told Adweek that “the campaign is a rebuttal to the ‘Is New York dead?’ conversation.”

It uses user generated content (UGC) outside of social media. New Yorkers from every borough can use Twitter and Instagram to submit their own reasons why the city still makes them smile. A lucky few will see their answers displayed on a cab.

It switches things up by neighborhood. “If a cab is circling around the Theater District, its screen will display ‘Reason to smile #187: Your sopranos win Tonys.’ Once a taxi hits the Upper West Side near Central Park, its screen will show: ‘Your local park is 842 acres,’” Candid told Adweek. 

The platform

The jury is still out on how effective digital OOH on top of cars is. Uber OOH and Firefly operate on a similar idea, but the space as a whole seems a bit untested. 

“I would say no one has proven out if digital ads on Uber/Lyfts is feasible,” Greg Star, co-founder of Carvertise, told Marketing Brew. 

“Everyone focuses on the supply (getting screens on top of cars), but the real challenge is creating the advertising demand. Lots of companies have raised money to build the supply, but not one of them is remotely close to profitability, or meaningful advertising scale.”

My takeaway: Candid's timely geotargeting + approach to UGC contain lessons that can be applied to campaigns that don't involve car roofs, as well.

AGENCIES

T-Mobile Takes a Step Back

T-Mobile’s $2.1 billion media account is under review, which is a big deal for the future of wireless carrier marketing...and the agencies involved. 

ID Comms is managing the review, and incumbents participating include Publicis Media, WPP’s Essence, and Horizon Media. 

Why now? Resident underdog T-Mobile acquired Sprint in April for $26 billion.

• Publicis currently controls T-Mobile’s $810 million offline business, while Essence controls the $200 million digital side.
• Horizon runs Sprint’s $1.1 billion account.  

Why this matters: Other than the size of the post-merger account, whoever takes over marketing for T-Mobile will have a direct hand in shaping the brand’s image as a wireless innovator.

Backstory: T-Mobile set itself up as an underdog industry disruptor after former CEO John Legere rebranded the company as the “un-carrier” and became its main brand ambassador. 

High stakes hot take: If T-Mobile wants to continue pushing its brand identity as the “un-carrier” even with Sprint on board, finding an agency that doesn’t just try to run the Verizon/AT&T playbook will be crucial.

SPONSORED BY CONCERT LOCAL

Think Big, Go Local

Local news outlets continue to play a vital role in times of uncertainty and 24/7 breaking news.

Yet many local news publishers are struggling. When these outlets fail, it creates news deserts that deprive populations of important information they simply can’t do without.

So Vox Media partnered with global research firm Nielsen to test if local news sites can be powerful marketing tools.

What resulted is Concert Local, a marketing platform that enables the nation’s biggest advertisers to spend with local publishers. Their research indicates that, in many situations, spending local is more valuable than a national spend, because it:

• Builds incremental audiences: 38% of local news site visitors don’t visit national news sites.
• Builds community: National ads are about awareness, but local sites create intimacy.
• Drives action: Local news users are more likely to have taken meaningful action on their local property as opposed to national.

Support local journalism, prevent news deserts, and boost your brand. Here’s the study that tells you how.

HOLIDAYS

In Spooky News, the Holidays Start with Halloween Now

If your resident LinkedIn “thought leader” told you that, in light of the pandemic, the holiday season now officially begins with Halloween...they might be onto something. 

Global consulting firm AlixPartners added October to its holiday shopping forecast for the first time this year. 

• Its recent survey found that 49% of consumers plan to begin their holiday shopping before October 31.
• And AlixPartners estimates that “sales for October through December will grow 1% to 2.6% from last year's sales of $1.1 trillion,” per Retail Dive.

TL;DR: Marketers are going to have to work twice as hard to stand out from the crowd even earlier this year. 

A few tips for doing just that: 

• Data from Pattern89 suggests “home for the holidays” messaging, like tree decorating and candles, is going to perform well this year. 
• And “free shipping” has the highest click-through rate (CTR) of other holiday shopping promotions, but is less frequently used. 
• “10% off” and “20% off” promos both show a steady upward trend, but “free shipping” is twice as effective.

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Google is shutting down paid Chrome extensions. 
• The U.S. ad economy rose 5.9% in August, in its first expansion since March.
• Amazon is limiting some of its competitors from promoting products in its search results.
• Uncle Ben’s rebranded to Ben’s Original in an effort to pivot away from its racist connotations.

SPONSORED BY ITERABLE

This playbook's a real page turner. We're back again to extol the brilliance within Iterable's playbook focused on helping your biz embark on the ever-present journey of personalization. Flip through the guide to home in on your brand's perfect audience using, drumroll please, Individualization! Iterable’s customers, like Strava, have been able to individualize their customer journey and outrun their competition—becoming the number one app for runners and cyclists. Get Iterable’s playbook today.

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK?

Which headlines are real marketing news, and which one is from marketing satire Twitter account ADWEAK? 

1. TikTok Users Getting More And More Proficient At Recognizing And Swiping Past Ads
2. Trump Graciously Made An Ad For Biden 
3. Travis Scott Meets McDonald’s (It’s Lit!)
4. Biden Campaign Courts the Animal Crossing Island Vote With Yard Signs

Keep scrolling for the answer.

AD ANTIQUES

eBay

Here's different kind of taxi cab ad from 2001.

ADWEEK OR ADWEAK? ANSWER

The TikTok story is the ADWEAK tweet, but you have to admit, that Biden ad is hilarious no matter whom you’re voting for.

ICYMI

Catch up on the top Marketing Brew stories from the last few editions.

• What marketers should do amidst the TikTok chaos
• Meredith announced its first mass layoffs since the pandemic began
• Peacock is on Roku now